Target sells gift cards online. They sell not only their own GC, but also other store’s GC and Visa GC. I added Visa GC to the cart and choose Target REDcard as a payment method to see if REDcard-5%-discount would apply on the purchase. The result was NO. The discount DOES apply on other store’s GCs, but NOT on Visa or Target GCs. When I was doing this research, I noticed that I might be able to choose Target GC as payment for the purchase of GCs. I could check the box next to Target GC, and there was no error message so far. But I didn’t have any Target GC so I couldn’t go further at that moment.

Soon, I went to GiftCardGranny.com and searched for Target GC. I found many 4% to 5% off gift cards. I bought 2 e-gift cards at Raise.com and immediately tried to use it.

It was successful!

I was able to buy a Visa GC with Target GCs.

At Target.com, the highest denomination of Visa GC is $100, and it charges $6 fee. Although I used Target GCs I got only 4.5% off, I didn’t lose money in overall transactions. Because:

• I bought $106 Target GC for $101.23 (+$4.77)
• Befrugal.com gives 1% cash back on purchases at Raise.com (+$1.01)
• 1% cash back from credit card (+$1.01)

Total $6.79 covers a purchase fee of Visa GC!

This isn’t the only discovery about Target Visa GC. The GC arrived a week later. On the same day, I went to Costco and see if I could get cash back at the register. I bought two $25 Costco Cash Cards. I swiped the GC and enter the PIN. And then a button that said, “20” appeared on a touch panel of card reader. I press the button and a cashier gave $20 in cash.

Although the description on the small paper card inside the package of the GC (“When swiping the card, always select credit, not debit, since there is no PIN”), a card reader wouldn’t let me choose between credit or debit. It just prompted me to enter a PIN. Whatever the 4-digit numbers you enter for the first time will be the PIN of your Target Visa GC. If you forget the PIN, go to mybalancenow.com. You can reset, and 4-digit numbers you will enter next time will be a new PIN. All these information can be found in the website. You can also check the balance, view transaction history, and assign the zip code in this website.

I bought $200 Visa GC at Staples.com in the same way. It is still on the way. When I receive it, I will try to get cash back at the register. And I will order another Target Visa GC and try to get cash back at different stores. I will need lots of Target and Staples GCs!

Updated July 7th 2014, cash back with purchase won’t be successful. I don’t know if it is not accepted anywhere, but at least not at Costco, where it used to be accepted.